Recently I had three of my guy friends over for dinner. One of them is what I would consider a very healthy eater, while the others eat as they please. I ended up cooking a large dinner for them, and would like to share it with my readers.
To start off any large dinner, I like to write down everything that I am going to prepare and the times that I estimate each will take so I can get organized. I also like to estimate a little over, so that if something comes up I can use the extra time usefully. I was preparing Pot Roast, Ham Slices, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Salad, and a Homemade Strawberry Cake with Homemade Cream Cheese Icing. My outline looked something like this.
Potatoes
10 minutes-Peel
15 minutes- Boil
10 minutes- Mash
Gravy
15 minutes
Cake
20 minutes- Prep
30 minutes- Bake
1 hour- Cool
Icing
10 minutes- Prep
Pot Roast
10 minutes- Prep
2-3 hours- Cook
Ham Slices
10 minutes
Salad
15 minutes- Prep
After making the list, I was able to figure out the order in which to prepare everything. That list looked something like this.
2pm- Cake
3:30pm- Peel potatoes, put in bowl of water in fridge
4pm- Check on cake, remove from oven, set oven for new temperature, and begin to prep Pot Roast
4:30pm- Put Pot Roast in oven, Make Icing to cool in fridge, Prep Salad, put in fridge
5:30pm- Check on Pot Roast, change temperature, Ice Cake
6:15pm- Boil Potatoes
6:30- Mash Potatoes
6:45- Ham, Remove pot roast, Begin gravy
7pm- Food on table
I'm sure it seems a little intimidating at first, but as long as you're mostly prepared, and have your list ready, you'll be okay. The only issue I ran into the day that I was cooking was that I had recently moved and tossed my cake flour. It worked out fine though because I had one of my guests (who had requested the cake in the first place) pick up cake flour on his way down. I pre-mixed all the cake stuff, and made the icing as planned, and then put the cake in the oven while we were eating dinner. It worked out nicely because it was finished by the time we were done eating dinner, and while it cooled we had time to relax and give ourselves some more room for cake!
Now for the recipes:
Pot Roast
Ingredients:
3.5 lb Roast
Roughly 1 cup of flour
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Salt, and any other Seasonings you like
Bouillon Cubes (1-4 depending on how much gravy you want)
Hot Water (enough to cover the bottom of your pan about 1/2 inch high)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Mix seasonings with flour. Pour flour on a plate and place pot roast in flour, covering each side with the flour and seasonings. Then put in a large skillet and brown each side for about 2 minutes each.
3. Place bouillon cubes in bottom of your roasting pan and then pour in your hot water. Put pot roast in water and season again as you like.
4. Place in oven and cook for an hour. I flipped my pot roast and cut a few small lines into the pot roast to ensure the inside gets cooked, and seasoned the other side.
5. Change temperature to 350 degrees and cook the remaining time (1 hr 15minutes- 2 hours).
Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 bag of potatoes
Milk
Butter
Salt, Pepper, Garlic salt
Directions:
1. Peel potatoes. I used an entire bag because I knew the boys would be hungry but you can use 6-8 decent sized potatoes for enough for 4 people.
2. Cut potatoes into small pieces. The smaller they are the faster they will cook.
3. Boil a pot of water and add potatoes. Boil for about 8-10 minutes. Stick with fork and when the fork goes through the potatoes easily they are done.
4. Strain potatoes from water and add to a bowl. Add salt, pepper, and seasoning.
5. Add about a tablespoon of butter and about 1/2 a cup of milk. Blend with a mixer or a masher. Add butter and milk to reach desired consistency.
Gravy
Ingredients:
Bouillon cubes and water from pot roast
Flour
Directions:
1. Pour gravy from bottom of pan into a sauce pan.
2. Add a small amount of flour and mix with a whisk or fork. Allow the gravy to start to boil and thicken. Add more flour to reach consistency desired.
Strawberry Cake
I got the recipe for my Strawberry Cake here: AllRecipes.com
I made a few alterations to the recipe to help make it healthier, so I've included my own version here:
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 3 oz package strawberry flavored gelatin
*1/4 cup of butter
*1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
4 eggs
2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour (the measurement is for after you have sifted the flour)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
"Strawberry Puree"
1 lb container of fresh strawberries
3/4 cup of sugar
Directions: (These are off of the website, with my alterations with an asterisk (*)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter *and Greek yogurt*, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree *For strawberry puree I simply cut up the strawberries into small pieces, added a few tsp. of water and the 3/4 cup of sugar and blended them together. I put the puree in a bowl and put in the refrigerator for about 1 hour instead of a day like some suggest.* Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.
Icing:
Ingredients:
2 packages 8 oz cream cheese
about 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract.
Directions:
1. Leave cream cheese out until room temperature. Place in bowl and add vanilla extract.
2. Portion in a small amount of powdered sugar and begin mixing.
3. Add powdered sugar until you reach the consistency and taste desired.
***After icing the cake, I thought to add a couple of slices of strawberry to the top to make it pretty, but I knew the boys wouldn't care.***
So there you have it. An easy way to prepare a decent meal, with healthy elements for hungry boys. I served the salad buffet style, cut up lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese and gave them assorted dressings and let them prepare it themselves, and added as little butter as possible to the mashed potatoes to help it be healthier. For me, the dish that needed the most help with being healthy was the cake, so I made sure to substitute some of the butter for Greek yogurt, a healthy alternative, that ended up making the cake very moist which made me happy.
The reactions: I personally thought the pot roast was a little tough for my taste, compared to my previous roasts, but the boys were quite satisfied. The mashed potatoes were gone instantly. The cake, well, I'm pretty sure everyone went for seconds and thirds and I had to send some home with two of the boys. Even one of the boys who hates healthy food but loves cake, enjoyed it. Gravy was nice and thick and taste good, I was glad that I had used 4 bouillon cubes to make a flavorful gravy. All in all, I'm pretty sure each boy had seconds of everything and I enjoyed it as well.
I hope you enjoyed this entry and will keep returning to hear more!
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